Laminated wooden bowling pin



Vv24, 1949. R. c. DIEHL LAMINATED WOODEN BOWLING PIN Y.

fig. 3

:region, changing zteristicsof'the pin as well las altering its physical areas of slab grain of Patented May 24, 1949 .STATES PATENT OFFICE LAMINATED WOGDEN BOWLING PIN V-Russell C. Diehl, Baltimore, Md. ,Application April 26, 194.6,.Serial No. .665,057

4 Claims.

"1 This invention yrelates tothe Yconstruction of .bowling pins, such `as .duckpins, tenp'ins, barrel upins, candlepins, andthe like for use .in games in which they are subjected to violent impact from .bowling balls and .trom striking other pins vand portionsof .thebowlingalley Where used,

The -bowling -pins now in general use are conventionally made by turning in a lathe from a solid piece of maple. The'region of greatest wear .of such .a pin ioccurs on .the base portion at a level with the center of the lbowling ball used. In duckpins, this region is also the region of maximum circumferenceof the pin, which increases the wear on this particular region due to strik- :ling other Kpins andportionsof the alley. When `:subjected to such wear, a conventional bowling gpn soon commences to flake and chip in Ythis the weight and :balance vcharacdimensions It has been observed that the greatest wear on such a pin occurs'at-'twofgenerally opposite portions-,ofthis region, coincidingnwith the inevitable the conventional ,pin. This is due to the fact that the slab grain of wood does not have as much resistance to wear from abrasion or impact as does edge grain.

Accordingly, it i-s proposed in this invention to obviate the above-mentioned difficulty by an improved bowling pin construction that will have no large areas of slab grain exposed at the base portion thereof and that may be simply and easily constructed from short pieces of maple.

Other objects and the nature and scope of the invention will be apparent to one skilled in the art from a study of the appended description, made in conjunction with the drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is an elevational view, partly in section, of a duckpin embodying my invention.

Fig. 2 is a second elevation of the pin shown in Fig. 1 taken at a 90 angle thereto.

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the pin shiown in Fig. 1, and

Fig. 4 is a cross sectional View taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 1.

Referring to Fig. 1, my improved form of bowling pin is formed from a blank I0 shown in broken line in Figs. 1 and 3 and formed of a central piece I I and shorter side pieces I2 secured to the sides of piece II adjacent one end thereof, thus forming the blank I0 which is of approximately square cross section in the composite portion. Each of the side pieces I2 preferably consists of three separate Ipieces I3, I4 and I5 secured together but may be formed of any number without departing fromthe scope of this invention. The individual pieces formingthe blank Il) are preferably united with a surface `bonding agent such as glue or cement, the resin glues being desirable for this purpose.

`In order to obtain the maximum wear from the bowling pin, the central ,piece II is selected from a piece of wood, customarily maple, having the grain or growth rings running Vgenerally parallel withthe width `thereof as shown in Fig. 4. The direction of the grain of a piece of wood is determined 'by `the method of sawing the log from which it is cut, as'iswell known. Hence, -the central'piece I I is selected from a'boarcl'that 'has 'been Vcut `with the Vgrain running in that 'manner ing of the composite blank I0 to produce the finshed pin is similar to the operation of turning the conventional pin and hence need not be described in detail. After the pin is turned, it may be nished in the customary manner with clear or white lacquer or varnish,

The completed pin presents, in the base portion thereof, a maximum of edge grain consistent with easy fabrication of the blank Iii. All intersecting surfaces of the pieces forming the blank I meet at right angles, thus simplifying the cutting and assembly of the pieces forming the blank.

1f desired, the pieces IS and I5 o blank I6 may be selected from strips of Wood having the grain slightly inclined to the grain of pieec I4 so that the grain of these pieces, when in place forming the blank Iii, will be generally parallel to radii through the midportions of these pieces. This construction of blank I0 will increase slightly the wearing ability of the finished pin due to the fact that the growth rings of pieces I3 and I5 at the finished surface of the pin will be a little closer together.

While the pin shown and described is a duckpin, it is contemplated that other types of bowling pins may be made in the same manner and the invention is not limited to duckpins alone,

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that my invention obviates the necessity and expense of manufacturing pins from large blocks of kiln dried maple and utilizes scraps of wood that would otherwise be scrapped, or smaller sizes of commercial lumber which is always more readily available and less expensive. In addition, by the use of several pie-ces to form the pin, a pin having a more uniform weight is obtained since the Weight is a function of the densities of the individual pieces. This feature is of particular importance in the manufacture of tenpins in which weight of the finished pin is of primary importance. The most important accomplishment of this method of construction, however, is the greatly increased durability and longer life of the pin, due to its ability to withstand repeated violent impact of the balls without splitting the pin, which is a common and frequent occurrence with a pin made from a single unitary block of Wood. The pin also maintains its original shape without excessive flaking, scaling or chunking out which is a frequent occurrence with the conventional Din having two slab-grain sides.

Certain deviations from the construction shown and described herein may be made without departing from the scope of the invention, which is dened by the following claims.

I claim:

l. A wooden bowling pin comprising a transverse central section having two parallel sides, extending between opposite sides of the pin and forming the head, neck, and a portion of the base of said pin, the grain of said section running generally parallel to said parallel sides, and a plurality of side sections secured to each of said parallel sides 'and forming the remainder of the base thereof, the grain of said side sections running generally perpendicular to the gi'ain of said central section.

2. A wooden bowling pin comprising a transverse central section having two parallel sides, extending between opposite sides of the pin and forming the head, neck, and a portion of the base of said pin, the grain of said section running generally parallel to said parallel sides, and

4 l a side section secured to each of said parallel sides and forming the remainder of the base thereof, the grain of said side sections running generally perpendicular to the grain of said central section.

3. A wooden bowling pin comprising a transverse central section extending for the diameter of said pin and having its grain substantially parallel to said diameter, andl three side sections secured to each side of said central section, the middle side sections having grain running generally perpendicular to said central section, and the end side sections having grain slightly inclined to the grain of said middle side sections.

4. A wooden bowling pin comprising a transverse central section having two substantially parallel sides, extending between opposite sides of the pin and forming the head, neck, and a portion of the base of said pin, the grain of said section running generally parallel to said parallel sides, and a side section secured to each of said parallel sides and forming the remainder of the base thereof, the grain of said side sections running generally perpendicular to the grain of the central section, whereby edge grain is provided about the periphery of the pin base.

RUSSELL C. DIEHL.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 721,976 Stevens Mar. 3, 1903 813,400 Buehler Feb. 27, 1906 1,026,581 Hayes May 14, 1912 1,214,126 Boldt Jan. 30, 1917 1,351,421 Grignon Aug. 31, 1920 1,9491325 Paul Feb. 27, 1934 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 3,379 Australia July 5, 1932 

